PETALING JAYA, MAY 24- Extra ballot papers, irregular serial numbers and switching of polls results took place on election day in the Balik Pulau constituency of Pulau Pinang, PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli (photo) said today, as part of his series of exposés regarding alleged electoral fraud in the 13th general election.
The documentation for stream 2 of SRJKC Yu Chye (Balik Pulau parliamentary seat) showed only 424 ballot papers were issued to voters on election day, Rafizi said.
“After the counting was complete and the results were recorded in Borang 14, the results for stream 2, SRJKC Yu Chye showed there were 562 ballot papers in the ballot box.
“There were 138 additional ballot papers that were cast. The numbers just do not tally,” he stressed.
The Pandan MP also pointed to the fact that the serial numbers of the ballot papers the Managing Officer receive did not match the ones that were eventually issued to voters.
According to a copy of the Borang 13, the serial numbers of the ballot papers the Managing Officer received ranged from 008151 to 008500, whereas the serial numbers of those given to voters ranged from 008501 to 008712.
“Even worse, the official results as recorded in Borang 14 for Parliament Balik Pulau was declared as the results for the state assembly seat of Teluk Bahang, which is a seat under the Balik Pulau constituency,” said Rafizi.
Borang 14 revealed that PKR’s Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik received 369 votes in stream 2 of SRJKC Yu Chye, while BN’s Hilmi Yahaya’s won 189 votes. Both were vying for the Balik Pulau federal seat.
But those results were recorded in the score sheet for the Telok Bahang state assembly seat instead, , according to documents supplied by Rafizi.
In Teluk Bahang, BN’s Shah Haedan Ayoob Hussain Shah won 6,034 votes compared to PKR’s Abdul Halim Hussain 5,233 votes. 167 votes were declared spoiled.
“All three of these official documents contain results which are incorrect and suspicious…with such a slim majority and high rate of spoiled votes, the results of stream 2 was enough to change the election results of the Balik Pulau federal seat and Teluk Bahang state assembly seat,” said Rafizi.
(PKR had lost to Umno in Balik Pulau by 1,539 votes, with the spoiled votes at 612. Hilmi received 22,318 votes over Muhammad Bakhtiar’s 20,779).
“This incident proves that cases of the number of ballot papers counted exceeding the number of ballot papers issued did happen.
“It happened in Balik Pulau, so it would most definitely have happened in other areas, even if #siasat-pru13 is unable to gather all reports,” said Rafizi, referring to the team he heads to probe electoral fraud.
100,000 police reports of indelible ink
Meanwhile, Rafizi also urged for 100,000 Malaysians to lodge police reports over indelible ink washing off from their fingers in less than the five days stipulated by the Election Commission.
“The fact that the EC was unable to fulfill its promise that the ink would last to at least five days after voting has made them the butt of jokes,” remarked Rafizi.
“If they can’t even do that properly, how on earth are we to expect that the EC is credible and can carry out its duty of meeting electoral demands, which has become the number one issue in the country?”
He said the disappearing indelible ink was a “symbolic failure” of the EC, and he hoped that by having 100,000 Malaysians lodging police reports over the matter, the EC would be unable to shrug off the incident.
“In the past, if there was fraud, [the mindset would be] ‘okay, we will wait for the next five years’. But now we want to show our objection to the failure of the EC to conduct elections fairly and transparently.
“If 100,000 Malaysians take the initiative to make a police report, this will show to the EC that it is not a small matter,” he said.
He noted how the EC had reportedly explained that the ink had washed off because the bottle had not been shaken properly.
The EC had also reportedly told the media on election day that it was not concerned by the rapidly-disappearing ink as voters would only be able to cast their ballots on that particular day.
“They are trying to basically cover the whole thing up as a small matter. It’s a big deal because the very foundation of their duty is to make sure elections are clean and transparent.
“If more people take the initiative [to lodge police reports], this just shows that they cannot just write it off.”
He said those who had lodged police reports could email copies of the report tosiasatpru13@gmail.com; hand them over to any Pakatan Rakyat MP; send the copies to any PKR, DAP or PAS office; or mail them straight to the PKR headquarters.
